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I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

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Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#601

Post by mi_lk »

mock-possum wrote: post #584
conductr wrote: post #570

At work, I use my calendar. At home, I have a wife. It's a joke but there's a lot of truth to it. She maintains our social calendar (which is mostly our kids social calendar and we tag along tbh) and I just ask what's happening tomorrow each night. For anything she's not telling me where to be, I have a Post It or just remember it. If there's something I want to do, I make sure she pencils it in well in advance or I…

That… sounds kind of fucked up. You’re saying you have an unpaid secretary? Surely there’s a better way you could present this?

I'll never understand how someone gets offended by other people's working relationship

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#603

Post by MrGilbert »

jack_pp wrote: post #441
barbazoo wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of earning money, but surely that's not what's it's all about, is it?

in terms of actually building something useful

If the tool brings you (you, as in: the one building it) joy and gives you a chance to let your mind float, then yes, it is useful. Just not for others. And that's fine.

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#604

Post by mosselman »

kilroy123 wrote: post #312
Aurornis wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What this shows to me, as someone who has committed some of the unholy crimes above, is that people want their system, however esoteric, to come naturally to them I think this is a vocal minority. Outside of internet comment sections, most everyone I know doesn’t care that much about their todo list software. The most productive people I ever worked with all had really minimal productivity software. For one person…

I strongly agree. I think it's a form of procrastinating. I read about all these complex systems for notes and second brains and whatnot. All procrastinating imho.

Someone on here once called it craftsmanship cosplaying.

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#605

Post by paulmooreparks »

The funny thing is, the answer to:

> Why This Actually Works

isn't anything the author lists under that heading. It's actually what he says above:

> Every night, I check tomorrow’s calendar. I dump everything into the next day’s section. Scheduled items get times in front. Sub-bullets hold notes or reminders. Finished tasks? I delete them or add what happened. Still on the list? Not done yet. That’s it.

That's why it works. He can build a simple ritual around it. The medium doesn't matter. The ritual does.

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#606

Post by nottorp »

pancakemouse wrote: post #198
Igrom wrote: post #92

Reading through the comments under this thread, there are many users who swear by a plain text file, but who then build quite a lot of snowflake software to regain functionality offered by more structured TODO applications. That includes: - having your computer alert you to things that come up - being able to tag notes - being able to add events to a calendar - being able to set priority of tasks - expecting prioriti…

What this shows to me, as someone who has committed some of the unholy crimes above, is that people want their system, however esoteric, to come naturally to them. I think reading docs, understanding a new system which someone else has designed, and fitting one's brain into _their_ organisational structure is the hard part. Harder than designing one's own system. It's the reason many don't stick with an off-the-shelf…

When you start structuring your TODO list, you will miss adding stuff that isn't easy to fit into the structure to said list.

And possibly regret it 3 months later...

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#608

Post by raldu »

I have came to the understanding that the things that we'd like to keep track of as "todos" are more like "issues," than specific and physical actions.

The "tasks" are only meant for the day, maybe drafted daily and be disposed of and forgotten in a post-it notes fashion.

The issues, then are more like a backlog of requirements, a call to duty, like "briefs on the mission."

The "issues" are the question; and neither todos, nor tasks are the answer.

It is robotic to compile and keep track of a set of "actions to be done" several days into the future, but those todo.txt's as a database can be treated as valuable asset, as a "documentation of scope," for a team-of-one, or many.

Hence the treatment of those not as "todos" as issues, with their shifting nature of requirements and many ways of resolution.

Such a database deserves reinventing because nothing else can be as tailored and as diamond-cut as the one that's been built by you.

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#609

Post by perilunar »

tra3 wrote: post #295
1970-01-01 wrote: post #167

I host my own wall calendar. There is an annual subscription cost, but it's so cheap I don't notice. I hacked it together with thumbtack 1.0 and Bic Crystal a very long time ago. Others have used it and find the interface extremely intuitive. Localization is supported. I even have pencil support. If things become tentative, we can switch over to it seamlessly. When I have a todo item, I input it onto the day and time…

How do you deal with multi tenancy? What's your back up strategy?

to back it up just take a photo of it.
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